Tuesday, November 03, 2009

V Is The Best Sci-Fi Miniseries EVER!

A new V series starts tonight. I LOVED the original. My dad was stationed in Germany from 1980-1985. Somebody taped it and sent all 10 hours to us, and I watched it over and over and over again (give me a break, we only had 1 channel). Of course, even after we moved to San Antonio and had more channels, I still would watch all 10 hours of V when I got a chance.

I remember one day in 1996 when I was stationed on the U.S.S. Oldendorf (DD-972) in San Diego. I had an apartment with a couple of my friends from the ship (I’m still really good friends with one of them). My dad, who worked for the Air Force as a civilian by that point, was TDY to San Diego for some reason or other. The Air Force goes TDY. In the Navy, we get to go TAD (Travelling Around Drunk). There actually happened to be a Star Trek convention in San Diego at the time. For some reason, while I was in San Diego, there weren’t any Star Trek conventions except for that one. I’d been to a few in San Antonio so I figured it would be fun to go with my dad. I haven’t been to once since.

The point of this post isn’t actually about the Star Trek convention. It’s about one idiot at the convention. I was walking through the booths and saw V- The Original Miniseries. It was on 2 VHS cassettes. I asked the vendor if he had The Final Battle. He said no, it hadn’t been released yet. I walked away, dejected.

Well, irony of all ironies: the next day, I was at the Navy Exchange, and saw a 5 VHS Cassette set of V The Original and V The Final Battle. I don’t remember what it cost me, but I bought it that day.

Later that year, I had to take a Typhoid shot. Typhoid always messed me up for 2 or 3 days, but for a short duration, I was working in Supply away from the ship and I was given the afternoon off. I settled down with my 10 hours of V and watched it just like I did all those summer vacations ago.

I don’t think I’ve had time to watch it since, but I still have it, safe on the shelf in my computer room. At some point, I should probably look for the DVD set.

Anyway, I hope this new V series maintains some of the splendor of the original. I know that 25 years and a new crew and a new generation and changes in society can change some things. Star Trek The Next Generation NEVER would have flown in the 60’s, but it worked well for the late 80’s. I hope the new crew is able to incorporate some new technology and cultural idiosyncrasies, while remaining true to The Original V. And I don’t mean that butt-awful attempt at a TV series where that alien hybrid girl shed her skin and aged 13 years every commercial break. After they kicked the Visitors off the planet, bringing them back for a TV series just didn’t make much sense. I tried to like it, I really did, but in reflection, it sucked.